Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Editor's note: Part 1 of 2 parts.
Thursdays and Fridays are the most common days for accidents in Kosciusko County, with 49 of the 288 personal injury accidents reported and 297 of the 1,666 property damage accidents taking place on Thursdays during 2000 and 32 of the 153 unknown accidents (those called in without knowledge of whether anyone is injured) occurring on Fridays.
Although more than 2,000 calls were received that an accident occurred, only 1,159 accident reports were filed.
Kosciusko County Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine said numbers recorded in the computer-aided dispatch system on some of the pages of the recently-released Kosciusko County Sheriff's Office Annual Statistics Report for 2000 are higher than actual numbers because more than one person often calls to report the same accident. Also, some reports of accidents are not accidents and do not require a police report.
Of the 1,159 total reports filed, 191 of the accidents occurred on Thursdays and the greatest number of the accidents - 103 - took place between 3 and 4 p.m. The fewest number of accidents - eight - occurred between 2 and 3 a.m. throughout the year.
There were 1,651 vehicles involved in the 1,159 traffic accidents in Kosciusko County in 2000; 1,000 of those vehicles were driven by males and 573 were driven by females. Seventy-eight of the vehicles were parked and had no drivers.
There were 10 male drivers involved in the 14 traffic fatalities; only one of those accidents involved alcohol. Those killed in car accidents included nine males and five females ranging in age from 16 to 89.
Males accounted for 195 of the 326 drivers involved in personal injury accidents and 795 of the 1,311 drivers in property damage accidents. Drivers ages 25 to 34 were involved in the greatest number of accidents, with 335 of the 1,651 drivers falling into that category.
The sheriff's department also categorized the county's "dirty dozen" intersections, as well as the top 12 roads for accidents in Kosciusko County.
The 12 worst intersections are U.S. 30W and Ind. 19N, where seven accidents occurred in 2000; CR 400S and Packerton Road, U.S. 30E and CR 250E and U.S. 30W and North CR 800W, which each had four accidents; Ind. 25 and CR200S, U.S. 30E and CR 325E and East CR 450N and CR 175E, each with three accidents; and Ind. 15 and CR 700S, East CR 450N and CR 300E, CR 700S and Packerton Road, U.S. 30W and CR 200W and Ind. 19 and Old Road 30, two accidents each.
The 12 worst roadways for accidents in 2000 were Ind. 15, with 88 - or 7.59 percent - of the county's accidents; Ind. 13, with 73 - 6.30 percent ; U.S. 30, 57; Old Road 30, 53; Ind. 25, 42; Ind. 19, 34; Packerton Road and CR 300E, 25 each; Ind. 14, 24; County Farm Road, 20; Armstrong Road, 16; and CR 100E, 14.
Drunken driving arrests increased from 396 in 1999 to 508 in 2000, making this the busiest year for such arrests since 1995, when there were 566. The lowest number of drunken driving arrests in the past 10 years was 286 in 1997.
The greatest number of drunken driving arrests were completed by officers with the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department (136), followed by Indiana State Police (108). Warsaw Police Department officers arrested 89 drunken drivers and Syracuse Police Department, 80. Other police agencies making drunken driving arrests: Winona Lake, 48; North Webster, 27; Milford, nine; Mentone, seven; Pierceton, three; and the Department of Natural Resources, one.
